This is my story on how I lost weight before I stopped smoking, how I came to stop smoking, and how after I stop smoking I am not losing any weight!
Approximately 8 months ago I was 223 LBs, smoked about 1 OZ of weed every 2 weeks, and smoked 1 1/2 pack of cigarettes a day for about 18 years. I started smoking weed when I was 16, and cigs since I was 18.
Sometime in October 2013 approximately 8 months ago after I found out I weighed 223 LBs after a physical I decided it was time to lose weight and get into shape. I stopped smoking weed but not cigarettes at this time. I have no idea why. Anyway, there is a park near my house that totals 4 miles in perimeter that I made a goal and told myself I would jog around without stopping. My first day jogging I went out to the park and ran about 1/16th of a mile and shortly ran out of breathe started huffing, puffing and gagging to the point I was going to throw up. My legs immediately swelled up and it took me 2 hours to walk back to my house from where I was( the park is about 10 minutes from my house)
I knew I had to take a different approach. After a couple days of rest a just started walking around the park. It was a struggle at first just to walk around the park once, but I trained myself to eventually walk around the park 2-3 times a day. At some point I also opened a membership at 24 hour fitness. My only purpose of this membership was to use the elliptical to strengthen my legs. My first day at the gym I did 10 minutes and was out of breathe. For months and months I eventually trained myself not only to walk around the park 2-3 times a day but also walked from my house to the gym do 60 minutes on the elliptical then walked back home ( 6 mile round trip).
I kept this routine until I flew to Vietnam January 29th (landed on Jan 31st). I was suppose to vacation in VN for 3 months, but it was cut short to only three weeks. I have a mental illness that cut my vacation short and sent me packing back to the states. When I was back in the California I relapsed and started excessively smoking weed again but it was only for a couple of weeks. Sometime early/mid March I clicked out of my relapse of smoking weed and started to walk around the park again. After a few days of walking I weighed myself. I was only 175 lbs. I was amazed that I had lost so much weight. This is when I decided it was time to start actually running. No more walking and no more elliptical at the gym. Middle of March I started running, and my first day I was doing 1/2 a mile at time. I was amazed how much stamina, endurance, and leg strength I had. Anyhow I kept jogging and running and increased the distance a little bit at t a time leading up to April 14, 2013. After my last cig of this day I ran two miles straight. That night I woke up several times gasping for air, hacking and coughing. The next morning I had the sharpest pain in my right lung every time I took a breathe. This is when I realize that running was lot more important to me then smoking so I stopped smoking and haven't smoke that day.
A couple days later I flew to Canada to visit my grandmother. I didn't want to jog since I kept feeling the pain in my right lung. After a week I felt a little better so I went out to the park near my grandmothers house and ran 4 laps around the track (approx. 1 mile). After that run I felt the pain again in my lung so I didn't jog the rest of my time in Calgary. In total I stopped jogging for 13days(minus the day I jogged 1 mile). The day I flew back to Cali April 29, 2013 that evening I walked around the park. The next day I started running again, but my body had changed. My lung no longer hurt, my legs were strong, and my lung capacity for air had reached another level. I started breaking my runs into miles at a time. Each morning I would run 2 miles, walk 1/2 a mile and run 1 1/2 miles until I finished the entire park. At night I went back out to the park and ran 1 mile walked 1/2 a mile, ran another mile, walked 1/2 a mile, and finished off the last mile for a total of 6 1/2 miles of running and 1 1/2 mile of walking a day!
All the jogging, running, walking, weight loss, quitting weed, and quitting smoking cigs, lead up Monday May 6, 2013. After taking Sat and Sun off I woke up that morning and decided I was going to go all the way. I jogged 4 miles around the whole park and never stopped. I ran 4 straight miles for 5 days straight last week! Earlier this week Tuesday May 14, 2013 which mark my 1 month smoke free I decide I was going to jog an extra mile on top of my 4 miles. I jogged 5 miles straight without stopping. In all this week I jogged 4 miles two days, and 5 miles 3 days. Today and tomorrow I am taking off and Monday I will try to increase my jog to 6 miles straight (or at least 5 1/2 mile if I can't go 6 miles).
Okay so here is the downfall! Even though I stopped smoking on April 15, 2013 when I weighed myself the middle of March which was over 1 1/2 month ago from I weighed 175Lbs. I just weighed myself and I weigh 171.8 LBs. For the last month I have cut down to 1 meal a day(low calorie meal) and have jogged 5 days a week 4-5+ miles a day since the middle of March after. Although I have not gain weight I have not shed a pound even with the low calorie daily intake and miles of running daily
I thought by now I would be around the 155-165 max range but that is not the case!
So yeah this is my story on weight!
So, just try to watch what you eat and limit it to healthy foods as much as possible! You should start to feel a lot better soon from not smoking, so plan on continuing on with your lifestyle change and start introducing more exercise into your daily routine! I know, it's easy for me to say, but I didn't follow this advice and gained about 10 pounds the first year!
